When You Know Yourself You Make Better Choices

"When you know better you do better." ~ Maya Angelou

You’ve probably heard it before: follow your passions and let your passions help you make good decisions. But what if you don’t know who you are or what your passions are? How do you get to know yourself so you can make better choices?

After all, don’t you want to be happy and know you are following your life’s purpose with the decisions you make? To experience peace you need to live in harmony with your true self. When you know who you are and what you want out of life, you are prepared to make better choices.

So, how do you get to know yourself?

Begin by understanding what makes you different. Explore what you heart desires by tuning out what the rest of the world thinks you should be. You’re not in school, so you don’t have to act like everyone else to fit in.

Your favorite school subject or color isn’t what knowing who you are is about. Knowing yourself is about understanding you on the deepest levels. It means knowing your purpose in life, at least as close as you can get to knowing.

Know that you aren’t born knowing yourself. Knowing yourself takes conscious effort with intention and purpose. If you don’t know who you are, it becomes obvious to you and others sooner or later. It’s like living a lie - a fake life. When you don’t know who you are, you don’t know what you want either. This means you can make decisions based on the wrong things and end up in places, jobs, or situations you aren’t happy with.

There are several ways you can learn who you are.

Understand your own personality. 

Ask friends what they think your personality is. Dig into your own feelings and knowledge about your personality. Your private personality might be different from your public one. Get to know what you are and who you aren’t. When faced with a situation, ask yourself why you did something a certain way. 

Dig into your core values. 

These are the moral codes and the principles you live by. List out your top 7 to 10 core values. These are the ones that will play the biggest roles in making decisions, how you communicate and your day-to-day activities.

Which values will you never compromise on? Is it honesty, integrity, or security? Or do you value financial comfort, wisdom, responsibility or loyalty?

Know your body’s limits, flexibility, balance and abilities. 

Knowing your body’s abilities helps you decide on the types of challenges you can take on.

Explore your dreams and hopes of your future. 

Knowing your dreams helps you make the right choices for the type of life you want to live. For example if you want to become a writer, ask yourself what type of writing you want to do. How proficient are you at writing and can you improve? Are you willing to make it a huge part of your life? Your dreams should be a part of every decision you make, especially big decisions.

Get to know your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes and your quirks and perks.

Knowing what you like and dislike and your strengths and weaknesses gives you the confidence to make good decisions on everything. What brings you joy, gives you a sense of satisfaction or makes you crazy? Your likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses are what make you unique.

Get to know yourself. Knowing who you are and what you want to do with your life helps you make better choices in the end.